1912 Southern War Ensign

The southern government used a white flag with a red canton bearing a white
sun with nine black rays presumably only during 1912 as a war ensign. This
was soon replaced by a red flag with a canton similar to the Kuo-min-tang
flag, but with a simplified sun. Later, in 1913 or 1914, this was replaced
by the flag that became the national flag of China until the communists
took over.

The 1913 state ensign is white with a red canton. On the canton is
a black nine pointed star. At the tip and through (for lack of a better
word) each point is a white ball. The Merchant ensign is just the canton,
used also as war flag. Whitney Smith gives the symbolism as follows:

. . . the dawn of a new day in China. Its red field bore in
the center a black star with eighteen gold balls - one for each province
of the land. Red corresponded symbolically to the south where the revolution
[of 10 Oct. 1911] had been raised, but it also was recognized as the national
color of the Han or Chinese people, rising against the yellow (Manchu)
dynasty to which they had been subjected . . ."

Nathan Augustine, 05 December 1995

One of the flags adopted at this time was the
State Ensign. Although, the dates are unknown to
me, the indications were that it was used very sparingly.
Some reports have indicated that the canton of
the State Ensign was used as the merchant ensign. I could find no evidence,
not to say there is none, to substantiate this claim. I believe that Mario Fabretto
agrees with this statement based on his post shown on the web site. This flag
known as a historical war flag.C. Eugene Baldwin, 10 December 1998